So now we have reached the end of the third week of the readalong. I had a bad reading week during the second week, but I am happy to say that I managed to catch up during the third week (I don’t think I have read so much in a week before) and though I am a couple of days late, I am happy to be posting my review today.

Because I couldn’t read much of the second volume last week, I thought I will write about both the second and third volumes today.

In the second volume, Jonathan Strange and Arabella are married and move to London. Strange starts learning and practising magic on his own. One of his friends suggests that he become a student of Norrell. After thinking about it a bit, Strange goes to meet Norrell and after the initial hiccups Norrell is glad to accept him as his student. They have some wonderful times together discussing magic, trying new spells and helping the government. At some point Strange goes to Spain and stays with the English army and helps the army during the war using magic. His reputation grows. Meanwhile Stephen Black and Lady Pole get abducted each night and dance at a night-long magical party and they come back during the day to their regular homes. They are not able to complain about it to anyone because when they try, what they want to say doesn’t come out but they start describing some unrelated event or story because of a magical spell cast by the fairy which is abducting them. If I can make a long story short, at some point Strange comes back from the war, he and Norrell have a fallout and they part ways. The abducting fairy now starts eyeing someone else to kidnap to his party. And towards the end of the second volume one of my favourite characters dies. It was so unexpected and heartbreaking. (Susanna Clarke, how can you do this??)

In the third volume, Strange and Norrell start having a cold war of sorts and Norrell sabotages every attempt that Strange makes to take magic to the public and he also maligns Strange’s name at every turn. Strange writes and publishes a book on English magic and Norrell makes it disappear. At some point because of some things which happen (and about which I can’t write about, because I will be revealing spoilers), Strange and the fairy which abducts people, get into a war. Initially Strange is at the receiving end, but then he learns now spells and techniques and gives it back. And then the place Strange lives in gets enveloped by eternal night.

What happens to Norrell and Strange? Are they able to resolve their differences? What happens to Stephen Black and Lady Pole? Are they able to come out of the clutches of the fairy? Why did that favourite character have to die at the end of the second volume? And does Strange’s plan to take magic to the general public succeed? What about the Raven King? Does he make an appearance? Is the eternal night problem resolved? The answers to all these questions form the rest of the book.

I enjoyed reading ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr.Norrell’. Though the thickness of the book (big) and the size of the font (small) are intimidating, it is an even-paced read and the story moves quickly. There are beautiful sentences and humour sprinkled throughout the book. I loved the historical references and the way Susanna Clarke weaves fact with fiction. I was particularly interested in the Duke of Wellington who commands the English army in the peninsular war. When I discovered that his second name was Wellesley, my curiosity was piqued, because there was a British governor general in India during colonial times called Wellesley and I wondered whether it was the same person or whether they had a connection. (My dad is a big fan of the governor general because of the way he developed public infrastructure in India. I discovered that the Duke of Wellington was Arthur Wellesley and he was the younger brother of the Governor General Richard Wellesley. Quite interesting!) I also loved the scenes where some of the other real life characters made an appearance in the book. There is a scene which describes the meetings between Lord Byron, Percy and Mary Shelley and Doctor Polidori, during which Polidori is supposed to have written the first ever vampire story and Mary Shelley wrote ‘Frankenstein’ and read it out. Many nice things happen at the end, but the ending is also open-ended and all the loose ends are not tied up. There is a promise of happiness but that lies outside the time-period of the story, there are some surprises which make the reader happy and there are some problems which are still unresolved. It makes one wonder whether a sequel was planned and one can’t resist pondering what happened to that. I would be particularly interested in whether the Raven King makes a longer appearance (someone who is probably the Raven King makes a brief appearance in the third volume) and whether Strange is able to solve the eternal night problem.

Many thanks to Delia from Postcards from Asia for co-hosting this readalong with me and for inspiring me to read this book. Many thanks to all the participants for joining in the fun.

Here are the links to the thoughts on the third volume by the other participants of the readalong :

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26 Responses

Enjoyed review. To date I think I have been put off this by a combination of that thicknesses and the tiny font, and by the blurb on the back which didn’t make it appeal to me! I think I’ve changed my mind having read this!

Thanks for stopping by, Col. Yes, the size of the book and the size of the font are definitely intimidating. That is one of the reasons I didn’t read this book for a long time. But once we start reading it is not intimidating at all and the story and prose flow smoothly. Hope you get to read this book and like it. Happy reading!

This novel sounds like a magical journey and well done for getting through it!

I love that you found a kind of personal connection, it would be interesting to ask the author about some of the inspiration behind the characters, I must say you are quite adept at picking up references to other works and historical figures.

I still feel intimidated by it, this is one of those books I’d add to the pile of possible summer chunkster reads, though I already have The Goldfinch lined up for this summer.

Thanks Claire. It was a wonderful read and I am glad that though its chunkstery thickness was intimidating, I managed to step out of my comfort zone and read it. I was really surprised by the Wellesley connection. I think if I mention it to my dad we might have a long conversation about it. I loved the scene where Lord Byron makes an appearance and whatever he says is always stylish and sarcastic and humorous. I hope you get to read it sometime. It does look like a summer read because of its size.

Hope you enjoy reading ‘The Goldfinch’ this summer. I got it recently and I also have Eleanor Catton’s ‘The Luminaries’ and I don’t know which one to read first because both of them are chunksters! Right now I am planning to relax with a comic or a novella :)

It is impressive that you could read two volumes in one week. And your comment about Arthur Wellesley is indeed interesting. I always like when a book makes me curious and teaches me something new in a roundabout way like that. I thought the mystery of The Raven King was handled very well in the story. While we learn quite a bit about him from the folklore that surrounds him, he remains shrouded in mystery.

Thanks TJ. It was a readathon week for me and it was hard because I don’t read so much in a week normally, but I wanted to catch up with all of you by the end of the week. I was surprised when I discovered more about Arthur Wellesley. It was quite impressive the way Susanna Clarke had done her research and woven the history of the time into her story in an authentic way. I agree with you on the mystery of the Raven King. He remains shrouded in mystery and that is one of the beautiful things in the story. Thanks for joining in the readalong, TJ.

i was totally looking forward to this! but there were no excerpts =( otherwise, i really really really need to get my hands on this. soon. between you and the other bloggers, i am totally up for the intimidating size and small font.

Thanks, Charity. Sorry about the excerpts. I wasn’t sure which lines to include because there were so many nice ones. There were many sentences spoken by Lord Byron which were very humorous and made me laugh, but most of them were more meaningful in context. Hope you enjoy reading this book and like it. I will look forward to hearing your thoughts whenever you get to read it.

Great review, Vishy. You liked the Duke of Wellington and I loved the references to Byron, Polidori (vampires, how could I not like that!) and Shelley.
I was intrigued by the prophecy Vinculus was talking about, and also about the one about Stephen Black becoming king. That was admirably handled.
The Raven King – I saw his name as a nod to E.A. Poe, what do you think about that?

Thanks Delia. Yes, I liked the Duke of Wellington and when I read more about him I was even more impressed. That scene with Byron, Polidori and the Shelleys was interesting. That is a legendary scene, isn’t it? I feel happy whenever a book refers to that scene. Yes, that prophecy was interesting and I loved the way the mystery of Vinculus was revealed. And the way Stephen Black becomes king – that was nicely done. The Raven King’s name was definitely a nod to Poe – I totally agree with you.

Thanks for being a wonderful co-host, Delia, and inspiring me to read this book.

I never even thought about the Raven King as a nod to Poe but now that Delia mentions it, it is a very interesting idea. I find your comments on the Duke of Wellington really insightful. Perhaps I need to brush up on my history a bit more to really appreciate some of the historical figures Clarke places in her novel. Well done for getting through both Volume II and III in just one week! And thank you and Delia for hosting!!

Nice to know that you liked the Raven King’s connection to Poe, Yasmine. I loved the references to the Duke of Wellington as well as the appearance of other historical and literary figures in the story. It made the story come alive. It was a tough, readathon week for me, but I am glad I was able to read both the volumes in a week. Thanks for participating in the readalong, Yasmine. Hope you enjoyed it.

I’m glad you enjoyed the book and that the readalong was succes.
I didn’t know there was a mix between fact and fiction or rather some hostorical figures in the book. I like that very much. I’m familiar with Wellington becsue I’ve watched the Sharpe series and of course Waterloo. I was laways more fascinated by Napoléon though but Waterloo manages to show the strengths of both. That was off topic, sorry.

Thanks Caroline. I loved your comment. I don’t think it was off topic :) I liked the book and it was wonderful being part of the readalong. Yes, Napoleon is fascinating. I hadn’t heard of the Duke of Wellington before I read this book. I always thought that it was Admiral Nelson who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. I don’t know how I first dreamt of this, because Nelson worked in the navy and the Waterloo battle happened on land. It was nice to learn new things about history through this book.

Wonderful review, it’s so great to follow you on your reading journey :) The huge amount of backstory (fictional mostly) that she thought up, I was really fascinated by that. And the whole theoretical vs practitioning magicians…oooh and the raven king. What was also wonderful were al the nods to Austen and gothic literature and the Shelley circle :)

Thanks Bina. Yes, the wonderful details and the backstory that Susanna Clarke had thought up was quite impressive. The theoretical and practical magicians concept was quite interesting. I loved the nods to Austen and gothic literature and the Shelley circle. The repeated mention of Ann Radcliffe made me very happy :)

It’s great to know that you enjoy this book, Vishy. I absolutely loved loved loved it! I thought it was brilliant and intelligent and at the same time still very magical and fantastic. I remember reading it I didn’t want to stop. I wish there were more books like this..

So glad to know that you too loved the book, Claire :) I wish Susanna Clarke wrote a sequel because the ending of the book seemed to indicate that. Or maybe a book which is not a sequel but is set in the same world with some of the same characters. I would have loved to read that.